Spring 2025 IAR Insights - Campus Data Warehouse Discovery, Communication, and Support

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Following nearly a full academic year of being live in our cloud-based Campus Data Warehouse, this issue of IAR Insights highlights discovery, communication, and support tools available to aid users in our new data analytics environment (QuickSight).

IAR Insights - Cal State Monterey Bay - Institutional Assessment & Research - Volume 17, Spring 2025

Discovery: How can users find available dashboards in Campus Data Warehouse?

Users can search for dashboards or browse within “Shared folders” in QuickSight, but to enhance discovery, our Institutional Assessment & Research and Campus Data Warehouse teams also created a Navigation and Help dashboard. This dashboard curates available dashboard content as “Featured” or explorable by “Role” and “Topic,” offering a more structured and targeted discovery experience.

The Navigation and Help dashboard includes three main views of available dashboards:

  1. Featured
  2. Role
  3. All Dashboards

Within each view:

  • "Topic" checkboxes positioned to the left of each table can be used to narrow the dashboard pages displayed to be relevant to that topic.
  • "Navigate >" links in the table's rightmost column open in a new browser tab, directing users to the selected dashboard page.

Featured

The Featured view curates dashboards with broad applicability across campus, such as overviews. Screenshot of Navigation and Help dashboard from Campus Data Warehouse illustrating 'featured view.'

Role

The Role views curate dashboards applicable to specific employee roles, such as “Analyst” and “Chair.” These role views may be available to users outside of these job titles. Note: A “Program and Course Assessment” role is currently being developed and will be coming soon.

Screenshot of Navigation and Help dashboard from Campus Data Warehouse illustrating 'role view.'

All Dashboards

The All Dashboards view lists all dashboard pages for which a given user has access in Campus Data Warehouse.

Screenshot of Navigation and Help dashboard from Campus Data Warehouse illustrating 'all dashboards.'

Communication: How can users stay connected and follow updates on issues and enhancements in Campus Data Warehouse?

Launched in Fall 2024, the Campus Data Warehouse Updates blog serves as a centralized and timely communication channel for users of the Campus Data Warehouse. Previously, updates were only shared during monthly Data User Advisory Group (DUAG) workshops and via a static release notes document, which limited timely alerts and broader access Screenshot of Cal State Monterey Bay - Campus Data Warehouse Updates blog.

Our new blog-based communication strategy ensures users are kept informed through:

  • Frequent and predictable updates about alerts, known issues, resolutions, new features, and enhancements.
  • Push notifications via automated email updates to the Campus Data Warehouse Users Google Group.
  • Pull communications by maintaining a living archive of updates on the blog that users can reference anytime.

Key features of the blog

  • Quick updates from the IT ticketing system to update all users.
  • Posts are categorized for easy searchability (e.g., Alerts, New Features, New Data, Known Issues, and Resolved Issues).
  • Posts are labeled with dashboard topics to browse relevant topical updates.
  • Alerts are embedded directly into the Campus Data Warehouse (e.g., visible on the Navigation and Help dashboard).

Alerts posted to the Campus Data Warehouse Updates blog appear directly on the Navigation and Help dashboard. Screenshot GIF illustrating Campus Data Warehouse Updates blog "alert" posts embedded in navigation and help dashboard in Campus Data Warehouse.

User benefits of the blog

  • Stay informed about critical system changes and issues without relying solely on attending DUAG workshops.
  • Opt in or out of email notifications.
  • Access a complete, searchable history of updates at any time.
  • Improve decision-making and avoid misinterpretation by seeing the latest issue status.

Visit Campus Data Warehouse Updates BlogSign Up for Periodic Email Updates from the Blog

Support: Where can users find additional support for Campus Data Warehouse?

Self-Guided User Support Resources

Help Guides

In April 2025, we launched a new Getting Started With Campus Data Warehouse - QuickStart Guide.

In addition, comprehensive Self-Guided User Support Guides are available with more detailed documentation.

Tutorial Videos

Brief tutorials of the Campus Data Warehouse toolset and dashboard overviews are publicly available via Panopto after each of our monthly DUAG workshops.

Data Exploration Open Labs

Institutional Assessment & Research continues to hold weekly open lab opportunities via Zoom, alternating on Wednesday afternoons or Friday mornings.

Register for an upcoming session.

Monthly DUAG Workshops

Our monthly DUAG workshops continue to be a critical pillar of our data user support. DUAG members provide crucial feedback that helps guide our development of new dashboards, enhancements, and bug fixes. Members also receive first updates on newly available and updated content to share back with their campus departments.


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